Month: December 2018

Christmas Eve Box

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn ChristmasLeave a comment

I can’t believe that Christmas in in 4 days! 4 days!!!!!! This year we are getting to do Santa with our grandkids. Our plans weren’t set until less than a week ago, so there was a bit of scrambling, but I am beyond excited because our younger kids have not “done” santa in a few years.  It’s going to be fun to have “believers” in the house.

In case you didn’t know, we have a 30 year old daughter with 2 kids ages 3 and 4. A 26 year old daughter who can’t be here this year and our 11 year old son and 12 year old daughter.

The 2  youngest are pretty excited about getting to play santa this year, so we decided to put together a Christmas eve bag. They will be getting in around 8, so I didn’t include a Christmas movie. We have most of them anyway and I do want them to fall asleep at a semi reasonable hour.

DSCN1299

The grand kids have never gotten to do the whole Christmas eve experience, which I LOVE doing. It doesn’t have to cost a lot. You can add what you want. We’ve always done new pajamas to put on Christmas eve.

DSCN1307

These are for the boys, ages 4 and 11. I realize that they aren’t Christmas, but I looked all over our town and could not find any cute Christmas ones in 5T. No sweat, a yeti lives in the cold and it’s cold at Christmas (mostly). I also realize how cheesy Yeti 2 Party is, but they boys will be ready to party on Christmas day. Y’all, I can justify anything. Plus they match and the bottoms are so soft! Walmart special and I  didn’t think $9.oo/pair wasn’t too bad and by the time I found a 5t, I probably would have paid 900. As I’m typing this I realized I never looked at Target where now, in my mind, there are racks and racks of super cute 5T Christmas pj’s. Sigh

DSCN1308

These are for our 3 year old granddaughter and 12 year old daughter. I did find Christmas ones in 3T, but couldn’t get her the ONLY Christmas ones out of all the kids, so Elsa it is. Good thing she LOVES Frozen. My 12 year old is in adult sizes and I’d already picked some up for her. I was super thrilled to see how well they matched. The Elsa ones are from Walmart and the other ones are from Family Dollar. They were $10 and are incredibly soft. If you’ve never shopped at Family Dollar, don’t turn up your noses. They actually have cute stuff for the whole house at really good prices.

DSCN1301

You can’t have a Christmas eve box/bag without hot chocolate. This came from Heartisans Marketplace in downtown Longview, TX. It’s a wonderful little store, run by volunteers, that help women learn work skills to get back into the work force. Every bit of money goes back into the store and into helping the women. It wasn’t frugal at about $12, but sometimes it’s more than about saving money, ya know.

DSCN1304

My husband and I had been on the lookout for some cute kid friendly hot chocolate mugs. It seemed like we looked everywhere. I knew exactly what I had in mind, but the ones I found were all about $12.99 and I just couldn’t pay that for Christmas mugs. We found these at Dollar General for a buck a piece. The travel mugs will be perfect for the littles, non-breakable and have a top. Perfect. I just love the Santa ones, but as I look at the picture do the cheeks look like boobs???????? OMG, they do and now I can’t unsee it! I will NOT mention it to the kids. Oh, well, it is what it is.

DSCN1305

I added 2 books. The traditional Night Before Christmas, picked up at Books a Million and Baby Jesus. I cannot for the life of me remember where I bought this one. It tell the story of Jesus’s birth. I STILL use the Little People nativity scene that we’ve had for about 10 years, so I think I’ll let them act out the story with it. Except there is one small problem….

DSCN1306

Can you find the problem? We don’t have the shepherd. I think he was accidentally put in the Little People farm that we donated ages ago. I think the cow took his place because I don’t think it originally came with a cow. I think Joseph may have to do double duty and fill in for our missing shepherd. That could work, right?

DSCN1302

Last, but not least, we have the gingerbread house kit. Shout out to the cashier at Dollar General for letting us know that Walmart had them for $4, even though they were still marked $9. I think all the kids will enjoy assembling this. I was going to add more candy, but I think what it comes with will work and the less candy, the quicker we can get it done.

So, that’s our Christmas Eve bag. Just enough to get the kiddos really excited for the big day. What do you put in your Christmas eve box? I’d love suggestions for next year.

Merry Christmas,

Stacy

 

 

Oh Christmas Trees

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

It’s almost Christmas! I can’t believe how fast December has flown by. I would like to say that I’m 100% ready, but that would be a lie. I decided not to stress out this year and just take my time and enjoy whatever happens.

I normally get our decorations up before Thanksgiving. Well, that didn’t happen this year, but I was okay with it. We actually have two trees up. I have never been the type to have more than one tree, but there’s a reason that has changed. Donny and my first Christmas together was 2004. We were both working 6 days a week, open to close at the Harley dealership in Oklahoma. It was crazy and we had decided to not put up a tree. I couldn’t do it. I caved. We were living in a townhouse that wasn’t very big, so I went to Big Lots and found a $10 tree that was maybe 6 feet tall. It was perfect for what we needed and we just figured we’d get a new, bigger the next year.

DSCN1286

And here it is 15 Christmases later. I CANNOT get rid of it. It was our first tree and I have a weird attachment to it. It is the only tree my kids knew. They used to think it was HUGE. Not so much now, since they are almost as tall as the tree itself, but, if you think about it, it really has earned it’s keep at less than a dollar a year for all the  years we’ve used it. It may not be the most beautiful tree in the world, but there’s more to my sweet little tree than how it looks. It’s the memory that is attached to each skinny limb. One year I even lost one of the feet and had to anchor it to the wall to keep it from leaning. Now that’s love. For the record, my husband thought I was crazy to keep it. I found the missing foot after Christmas.

DSCN1270

DSCN1296

It makes our seldom used living room much cozier.

DSCN1259

I absolutely love our little tree, but summer before last big brother tree came to live at our home. I was at Goodwill and there in the corner was a huge box. Of course I had to see what it was. Of course. It was a 7 1/2 foot Christmas tree for $4.99. I knew there was a chance that it wouldn’t have all the pieces, but I was will to take the chance. I mean, what frugal person wouldn’t.

Well, not only did it have all the pieces, it had the directions and extra pieces.

DSCN1283

Does it fit? Yes, if you shift everything around. I just love that it has found a new home with us. When I look on instagram I see all the homes that have the perfect tree. Everything is coordinated and magazine perfect. My home will never be like that. I obviously never “stage” pictures. What you see is how it is, but I like that better. It’s real life and my hodge podge tree is definitely real life.

DSCN1240

It was an ugly Christmas sweater party.

DSCN1272

A santa I got in a secret santa exchange MANY years ago hangs next to a stick reindeer.

DSCN1276

Our tin bear in the box that Donny brought home from work years ago.

DSCN1273

So try not to stress out this Christmas. Looking back to our first Christmas together, I don’t even remember the presents. All I remember is the feelings of love and thankfulness. Things do not have to cost a lot of money to bring happiness.

DSCN1280

 

Merry Christmas,

Stacy